June again

A second visit for June - yay!

This one was really for a birthday party on Saturday night but any old excuse to spend a few hours birding :)

Very quiet everywhere, er, if you discount the mass of juvenile songbirds bouncing about in the undergrowth. A few highlights; Pochard, Curlew, two Little Owls, young Grey Wagtails, two Garden Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, and Coal Tit.

Saturday 20th June

Morning: at Kelk Lake 3 Tufted Duck and 2 Little Grebe. Around Harpham and Lowthorpe were a Little Grebe, 3 Common Buzzard, 2 Kestrel, 4 Lapwing, 1 Little Owl, 3 Great Spotted Woodpecker, Grey Wagtail, 2 Garden Warbler (together, probably a pair), Goldcrest, 4 different Long-tailed Tit families, Coal Tit (Lingholmes Plantation), male Bullfinch.

The only non-birdy sightings were a Painted Lady, 3 'whites', a blue Damselfly and a dead Mole!

Afternoon: not much time but zipped through Foston. At Brigham Quarry were 8 Mallard, a female Pochard with 5 young (a rare breeding bird in UK), 3 Tufted Duck, 8 Little Grebe, 2 Grey heron, 2 Oystercatcher, 1 Curlew flew SW, 20+ Sand Martin holes in use, Yellow Wagtail, Sedge Warbler, and Reed Bunting. Also a Painted Lady and 3 Small Skippers here - butterfly year tick #10.

At Foston Mill there was a Spotted Flycatcher (year tick #101) seen briefly but disturbed by a dog walker after which I couldn't relocate it. Also here two juvenile Grey Wagtail showing well. Very pleased about both of these records.

On the way back to Kelk there were 120 Rook together at the north end of Foston, and just south of Great Kelk a Little Owl, 26 Blackbird, 2 Mistle Thrush, and a Tree Sparrow. All this lot were in the sprayed off fallow field by the turkey farm.

Sunday 21st June

Ouch. A slow start meant we were battling the hot sun from the off. Not ideal. Anyway, along Kelk Beck were a post-breeding flock of 150+ Lapwing, an exceptional count for June, and two Yellow Wagtails. Not a lot else apart from a second Water Vole this June.

At Cattleholmes it was also quiet but 4 Tufted Duck, 1 Little Grebe, 1 Grey Heron, 4 Coot, 6 lapwing, and a female Common Whitethroat.

Three further Common Whitethroats were along Lynesykes and a Lesser Whitethroat was near Gransmoor Lane - the seventh local site for this species this year!

Butterflys were 3 Painted Lady, 7 Small Skipper, 2 Small Tortoiseshell, 2 Large White, and 5 Meadow Brown - butterfly year tick #11.

No time for any birding in the afternoon :(

Two flyover adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls were the only gulls seen during the weekend.

Hardly took any photos, but I'll shove a few up later...